CAPE CORAL, Fla. — The City of Cape Coral has announced they will reopen the Cape Coral Yacht Club beach on Friday, Nov. 10.
The beach and most of the yacht club have been closed since Hurricane Ian.
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It’s been over a year since Hurricane Ian took away people’s beach days in Cape Coral, but the time for lounging in beach chairs and enjoying water-side snacks had returned.
While the official reopening day was on Friday, people on Thursday were still able to enjoy the beach.
“It beats going over that bridge to go to Fort Myers this is a very homely, it feels like we are home,” said one person sitting on the beach.
On Thursday, city leaders said it took bringing in over 500 tons of new sand and sending divers into the Caloosahatchee River to remove any debris, for the area to be ready to reopen.
Cape Coral's Mayor John Gunter wished it could have come sooner.
“Only in the last few weeks have we gotten the permits to do the beach re-nourishment,” said Mayor Gunter.
On Thursday, the timing was good enough for some of Cape Coral’s seasonal visitors.
“I'm from Minnesota, we left on Halloween and it was snowing outside,” said one person walking on the beach.
With many coastal hotels and resorts outside of the cape still recovering after Hurricane Ian, Cape Coral council member Bill Steinke said opening the beach means opening up the possibility for more tourism dollars.
“For them not to have to go out and deal with the bridge traffic for them not to have to deal with Fort Myers Beach or Sanibel but to have a local beach where they can come they can enjoy that was one of the driving forces,” said Steinke.
City leaders said the beach is open from dawn until dusk and it will remain open even during future redevelopment of the Yacht Club.
